Ι am Autolycus and this is the Europa Report for the past week, September 16th to September 23th, bringing you the latest news on the Continent regarding new political developments and the ever ongoing ‘’refugee’’ crisis.

We begin with Germany where a fire-bomb attack destroyed the car belonging to the leader of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, Frauke Petry just 12 hours before voting began in local elections in Berlin.

The attack happened on September 16th following weeks of public incitement against the AfD by establishment politicians, terrified at the party’s recent electoral successes which have seen it win seats in 9 of the 16 state legislatures.

A statement on Petry’s official Facebook page said that the “harassment from [Socialist party of Germany—SPD—leader Sigmar] Gabriel, [SPD deputy leader Ralf] Stegner, and [SPD Justice Minister Heiko] Maas” has been “getting continually more violent” in its propaganda.

Furthermore, Lutz Bachmann, founder of the anti-Islamisation PEGIDA movement, has confirmed that he has moved to the Canary Islands to escape persecution from the German government.

After almost two years of campaigning against the Islamisation of Germany and warning of the repercussions of unlimited mass migration, founder and former leader of the PEGIDA movement, Lutz Bachmann, has been forced to leave Germany.

Citing the coordinated government persecution of himself and targeted attacks on his family, Mr. Bachmann has moved to Tenerife on the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

Spiegel Onlinereports that the PEGIDA founder’s appearance at the weekly Monday evening demonstrations in Dresden have become rare in recent months, with rumours circulating that Mr. Bachmann had emigrated and was flying into the country to participate in the German rallies.

Μoving on to Sweden where new heights of violence have been reached across the country. Also simultaneously Sweden has engaged in a never seen before borrowing rate the second quarter of this year, as both individuals and the government took out record levels of debt.

The violence has been occurring predominantly in the immigrant suburbs of Malmö and Gothenburg, but has stretched all across Sweden in various manifestations. Malmö has been seeing cars steadily burned as a nightly event for weeks on end. More fierce was the violence in Gothenburg.

This violence in Gothenburg was a mirror of that which has been going on in Malmö for what is now many months.

It takes place in the gigantic government housing complexes in which are quartered tens of thousands of the Somali, Afghani, and Arab immigrants Sweden has imported into its country.

“Malmö in south Sweden was one of the cities which was flagged as a particularly hit area in the liberal country.

Over the past three months, Malmö, which is Sweden’s third largest city, has suffered a surge of organised crime as more than 70 cars have burned out in arsonist attacks.

Not to mention that, it is estimated that 80 per cent of the police officers are also considering changing professions, due to lack of funding and support to tackle the increasing levels of crime.”

At the same time Sweden is dealing with this, it is also being reported today that 2nd Quarter borrowing in the country hit record levels among both the government and consumers.

Fria Tider also links that increase to immigration stating that “ Riksbank continued in the second quarter of 2016 to pursue an expansionary monetary policy by leaving the repo rate unchanged, while the continued support purchases of government bonds, which the government has been in need to get the room for maneuver since asylum chaos began in 2015.”

Across the Channel, in Britain Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Thursday that Britain plans to trigger Article 50, the formal process for leaving the European Union, early next year.

“We are talking to our European friends and partners in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an Article 50 letter. We will invoke that,” he told Britain’s Sky News television in New York.

Prime Minister Theresa May has previously said that Britain would not trigger Article 50 before the end of this year. Doing so would mark the formal start of a two-year negotiation period for Britain to leave the EU following its referendum vote in June to pull out of the 28-nation bloc.

However, May’s Downing Street office distanced the government from Johnson’s comments.

“The government’s position has not changed: we will not trigger Article 50 before the end of 2016 and we are using this time to prepare for the negotiations,” a spokesman said.

In other news, billionaire investor George Soros said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that he would invest $500 million to meet the needs of migrants and refugees.

The investment comes in response to the Obama administration’s “Call to Action” initiative, asking U.S. companies to help ease the migrant crisis.

Soros, founder of the Open Society Foundations, also said he plans to work closely with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Rescue Committee to guide his investments.

This comes a day after the ceasefire between the U.S. and Russia in Syria ended, after a Syrian or Russian aircraft attacked an aid convoy near Aleppo.

In the Greek island of Lesvos nine people have been arrested after a large fire destroyed parts of the Moria refugee camp.

Up to 4,000 migrants were evacuated from the camp, as the blaze destroyed tents and prefabricated homes. No fatalities were reported, but large areas of the camp, which was already crowded, were left unusable.

The Greek government said it would send a ship to hold at least 1,000 people as a temporary overflow area.

Early reports suggested a riot broke out as rumoθrs of imminent mass deportations to Turkey spread. Other witnesses said it was the result of an argument over food.

The nine people arrested under suspicion of starting the blaze included people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal, Syria and Cameroon, the AFP news agency reported, citing a police source. Additional riot police have been dispatched to the island.

Despite the instability which increasingly characterizes Western Europe, in the East, Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban made strong declarations for the start of the new parliamentarian year.

He denounced nihilism as the enemy, wished to control the Mediterranean Sea by sinking the illegal boats and wants to help Christians before Muslims.

For the Hungarian Prime Minister, first of all, what his “enemies represent today has nothing to do with the thoughts and ideas of the great liberal thinkers of the past. This is pure nihilism, and this nihilist point of view stealthily came upon the world and the institutions of the European Union”.

Also he claimed it is not migrants’ fault, but Brussels is responsible. “We Europeans have not yet even decided what we want to do”. “If they invite those unfortunate people, they will come. Our chance is now to use the referendum to derail the EU’s efforts, and hope our example will echo across Europe and start a wave, so that after next spring a different leadership is installed in the institutions of the Union.

Victor Orban also emphasized: “Let’s not forget that the nihilistic elite think of Central Europe as an area in need of change, a dilution of population,”.

In this spirit Austria’s right-wing presidential candidate Norbert Hofer aims to join forces with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in a bid to tackle the migrant crisis engulfing the continent, if he takes power.

Ahead of the upcoming EU summit in a castle in the Slovak capital of Bratislava on Friday, the political powers in central Europe have discussed their alliance.

The latest development comes after Mr Hofer recently called for the “wise voice” of Central Eastern Europe to have “more influence in the EU”.

Berlin and Brussels could also be interested in joining “Habsburg light” – named after the former central European monarchy – or “Visegard Plus” because the Balkan countries are also expected to express interest in membership.

That was all for this week!

The Europa Report is a compilation of selected articles from the following sites: